Source: @norml @WeedConnection
Posted By: norml@weedconnection.com
media :: news - Tue, 03 Jun 2014 04:20:21 PST
Kentucky: State Officials Receive 285.819308 Pounds Of Hemp Seeds For Planting
Agriculture Commissioner: "We've done something that no one thought we could do a year-and-a-half ago."
Kentucky: State Officials Receive 285.819308 Pounds Of Hemp Seeds For Planting
Frankfort, KY: State officials received 285.819308 pounds of hemp seeds late last week after federal anti-drug officials signed off on plans enabling the Kentucky Department of Agriculture to cultivate the crop as part of a series of statewide research projects.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration initially seized the shipment, which state officials had ordered from Italy, several weeks ago. State officials sued the agency in federal court prior to the DEA's decision to release the seeds.
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture is sponsoring eight pilot studies evaluating the feasibility of hemp cultivation. Those studies are slated to begin imminently.
"This is a historic day," Agriculture Commissioner James Comer told the Associated Press. "We've done something that no one thought we could do a year-and-a-half ago. We legalized industrial hemp and we've proven that it's an agricultural crop and not a drug."
More than a dozen states - including Hawaii, Indiana, Tennessee, and Utah - have enacted legislation redefining hemp as an agricultural commodity and allowing for state-sponsored research and/or cultivation of the crop. Kentucky enacted its law last year.
In February, members of Congress approved language (Section 7606) in the omnibus federal farm bill authorizing states to sponsor hemp research absent federal reclassification of the plant.
According to a 2013 white paper authored by the Congressional Research Service, a "commercial hemp industry in the United States could provide opportunities as an economically viable alternative crop for some US growers."
Industrial hemp is a genetically different variety of cannabis possessing only minute quantities of THC, the primary mood-altering compound in the plant. Hemp fiber and other components of the plant may be utilized in the production of thousands of products, including paper, carpeting, home furnishing, construction and insulation materials, auto parts, animal bedding, body care products and nutritional supplements. Nonetheless, federal law makes no legal distinction between hemp and marijuana.
Vermont: Majority Supports Regulating Retail Marijuana Sales
Montpelier, VT: A strong majority of Vermonters support regulating the commercial production and retail sales of marijuana for adults, according to a statewide Castleton Polling Institute survey commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that they support "changing Vermont law to regulate and tax marijuana similarly to alcohol, so retailers would be licensed to sell marijuana to adults 21 and older." Only 34 percent of those surveyed opposed the notion of legalization.
The Castleton poll possesses a margin of error of +/- 4 percent.
Within the past few months, separate statewide polls in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Texas have all shown majority support for legalizing the adult consumption of cannabis.
Recent national polls by Gallup (58 percent), CNN (55 percent), CBS (51 percent), and NBC (55 percent) have also shown majority support for legalizing cannabis.
Illinois: Nearly 99 Percent Of Marijuana Arrests Are For Possession Only
Chicago, IL: Nearly 99 percent of all annual marijuana arrests made in the state of Illinois are for violations specific to the plant's possession, not its sale or cultivation, according to an analysis published by investigators at Roosevelt University.
The report finds that for the year 2010, 98.7 percent of those arrested for violating the states' marijuana laws were charged with possession only. African Americans were nearly eight times as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana violations in the state.
The high percentage of cannabis possession arrests stands in contrast to the intent of municipal laws enacted throughout state, including in Chicago, that allow for police to issue non-criminal citations in lieu of arrest for those found to be in possession of small amounts of the substance. In many of these jurisdictions, however, police were still electing to make arrests, the study found. For example, 93 percent of misdemeanor marijuana possession violations in 2013 resulted in arrest in Chicago, while just seven percent of the city's minor marijuana possession cases resulted in tickets.
"Discrepancies in the application of the tickets by geography create a patchwork system of policy resulting in an unequal application of justice," the authors reported. They estimated that marijuana possession arrests and adjudication costs in Illinois cost taxpayers between an estimated $78 million to $364 million per year.
"Changing policing policies to reduce the number of marijuana arrests made so that police can focus attention on serious crimes is a sensible idea," authors concluded. "Lowering the number of arrests is good policy from a public safety standpoint. ...Furthermore, redirecting the focus of law enforcement away from low level marijuana offenses makes both fiscal and economic sense, particularly at a time when budgets are especially tight."
Full text of the study, "Patchwork Policy: An Evaluation of Arrests and Tickets for Marijuana Misdemeanors in Illinois," is available online at: https://www.roosevelt.edu
(c) Copyright 2006-2420 - WeedConnection LLC - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
#Support Your #OG @WeedConnection! (Click Here)
